Selling the Museum

Vortrag
Reihe: “Kunst – Gesellschaft – Politik”

The Branding of the Museum: taking the most popularly successful contemporary art museum, Tate Modern, as its main model, this lecture analyses the branding of the museum: that is, the attempt to give the museum an affirmative and consistent communicative message. The visual, commercial and interpretative aspects of the brand are discussed, along with the appeal to a mobile, shifting and potentially fickle audience. Finally, it is asked: what does the branding of the museum do to the way in which art is experienced, and does it conflict with the museum’s educative role?

Julian Stallabrass, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Publications:

Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006Internet Art: The Online Clash of Culture and Commerce, London: Tate, 2003